Ronin
by The Cloud's Essence
Summary: Ryuumaki Ryo. Honestly, she hadn't even tried with the name, coupled with her red hair, large, dense chakra reserves, and seals it was a wonder how nobody ever could guess her clan unless she spelled it out for them. She blamed it on the standardized education system.


" _Papa," a little girl pouted cutely, "How come you never let me blow the bad people up?"_

 _Tenjin chortled, ruffling his daughter's red locks that were much like his own. "Sweet heart, I know you love your explosives, but you need to focus on the other parts of your shinobi training."_

" _But–!"_

" _Ryo-kun," he scolded firmly, "Your explosive tags are limited and can easily catch you in the blast. And you may not always have time to set a trap up, or may be in a situation that calls for a less flashy way to get rid of your opponent."_

 _The little red-head wilted, "What if I could avoid that, Papa? Could I use them whenever I wanted then?"_

 _Tenjin raised an eyebrow at that. He wasn't sure if he should be more concerned about his daughter's obsession with explosives since he introduced her the rudimentary skill that was explosive tags._

 _Ryo, sensing he wanted her to elaborate did just that. "Like, how you said some people can touch things and a seal will appear if they're really, really good at it." Her arms were thrown up in exaggeration._

 _Maybe he should be more concerned, even if it was an interesting idea. The theory was sound, but no shinobi had cared to master such a simple seal to such an extent before; the mind of a child was truly amazing at times._

 _Still, the idea of his daughter being able to explode anything with a simple touch…he suddenly paled. "A-as long as you don't place them on people, R-Ryo-kun." Because that would be very bad considering the few times people tried that, the seals would malfunction very badly._

 _The girl blinked, confused, before fixing him with starry orange eyes at him. "Can you do that?" She squealed excitedly._

 _He turned to her wildly. A panicked "NO!" leaving him._

 _Her eyes began watering at his yelling. "P-papa…" She sniffed._

 _Shoot! He pulled her in a hasty hug, rubbing her back. "I'm sorry Ryo-kun, it's just experimenting with explosion seals is a very risky science. Everyone who has tried putting putting them directly on living beings has ended up either losing limbs or dying due to the seal turning bad."_

 _She pouted, "But maybe I can be the one who succeeds, Papa! You said, 'There's nothing an Uzumaki can't do with a seal, 'member?"_

" _Ryo-kun…" Damn, those eyes were impossible to resist, "As long as you make sure to be safe, okay? And I will have to supervise." He tried being firm, but he couldn't just crush his daughter's dreams by saying no. Wait, did he just okay letting his daughter experiment to turn people into human bombs?_

 _If Hotaru was still alive, she would kill him on the spot for corrupting their child. Or would she beat him up if he refused their daughter? His wife's temper could always go either way in these matters._

 _He could only hope for once that Ryo would hit a road bump and find another area that interested her. Like taijutsu, his daughter was surprisingly agile and slippery, and she could pull off a pretty spectacular triangular choke* if he could say so himself. Hotaru would definitely be proud if she could see the way her daughter could pummel men thrice her size into the ground._

 _With a fond smile, Tenjin clapped his hands together._

" _Well, I guess we should add that into the training schedule, ne?"_

 _The delighted squeal told him all he needed to know._

 _Life as a ronin* wasn't always easy and made it necessary to train Ryo for anything, but as long as his daughter was happy, then so was he._

* * *

A red-haired woman groaned as her stomach once again growled loudly. She was so close to the next village, and while she usually avoided shinobi villages like the plague, this time was an exception.

Oh, and she was really craving something that she didn't cook.

Not that her cooking was bad…it just, wasn't good. The only thing she could cook without it tasting bland was meat, and that was only if she slipped the flesh on a stick and roast it over the fire until it was ready. Adding anything fancy was just asking for dry, burnt, or past-like meat.

She licked her lips as she saw the gates draw closer, and she was able to make out the leaf symbol carved above the gate. Konoha was supposed to be on of the nicer hidden villages, so they probably wouldn't bar her entrance and just keep an eye out as she couldn't completely hide her chakra signature without it looking suspicious to a sensor.

A big village like Konoha was bound to have a few sensors in the lot.

If not, she could always fall back on the old friendship between her dead clan and Konoha to enter. Leaf nins were supposed to be the more honorable type, after all.

She let out a grin at the two shinobi manning the booth, both already eyeing her, no doubt Konoha had some sort of sensory seal system like most major hidden villages. They'd be stupid not too, especially with their friendship with the Uzumaki's during their founding.

The shinobi pouches and scrolls attached to her belt, and the general shinobi wear, may have given her away too.

But she'd like to think it was due to some great sensory seal which alerted the guards.

"May I ask your purpose for being here, little miss?" the shinobi wearing the bandana asked, stretching his hand out in a silent request for her passport. The woman contained a twitch at how she was addressed, already used to people mistaking her for a child.

The other shinobi with the wild hair was leaning forward with barely contained interest. It wasn't often that someone who was no doubt a shinobi walked right in the front gate without forewarning, and so young and alone too. Not taking into account the jonin-genin teams that were already here, having been culled for the final exam.

The woman handed her passbook to the man, ready to tell him her reasons before her stomach cut her off. The wild haired one couldn't quite stifle his laugh at the mortified look that came over her face at the grumbling sound.

She mentally cursing her digestive system. "To eat. Heard the Akimichi's have some of the best restaurants," she cleared her throat, "Anyway, I'm sure you noticed but I'm a shinobi, er, more of a ronin – no, not a nuke," she added quickly when one of them tried to speak up, "just never had a village, see? I don't care if I have to spend my time with an ANBU buddy tailing, as long as I can eat something that isn't my shitty cooking."

She blinked, mental gears turning loudly. "Oh, and the Chuunin Exams," she added almost as a side note, digging around in her hip pouch for the damn ticket. God, she couldn't wait to eat.

The two men shared a glance, and the bandana one sighed. "That should be fine, Miss…" he glanced at the passbook, then handed it to his friend to fill out the entry sheet, "Ryumaki, as long as you only stay here for your intended purposes."

She pulled the ticket out and slid it to the gatekeepers. "Ryo."

Bandana-man frowned, "I'm sorry?"

The girl rolled her eyes, "I prefer to be called by my given name, rather than my surname."

Spiky stood up suddenly, pointing a finger accusingly at her. "Do you take us for fools?!"

Ryo recoiled, at the abrupt accusation. The other shinobi already had his hand on his weapon. What the–? She felt worry boil in her. She hadn't said an outright lie, and all her papers were in order, so there was no way he could possibly have found anything.

"There's no way you're 24!"

Her face dropped, shadowed by her red bangs. _That's what this was about? Why the hell did everyone insist she wasn't her age whenever she decided to wear a god-damned shirt over her mesh-armor?!_

"This has to be a fake– GAH!" Ryo yanked Spiky down and furiously brought him into a triangle choke(1).

"I _am_ 24, god dammit! Who the hell do you think you are?! My _fucking birth certificate?!_ "

"Guh–, Izumo… save me!" Spiky gasped out.

"Were you there at my birth, huh, Spiky? Do you think it's funny to go around claiming full-grown woman are just snot-covered brats?!"

"I– never–!"

"Shouldn't you help him, Izumo-san?" a passerby asked worriedly, eyeing the two struggling masses rolling in the dirt.

Izumo held out a hand in front of the man, blocking him from going forward. "It's fine, Asuma-sempai, Kotetsu was just being his usual idiotic self again."

"You're a sorry excuse for a shinobi if you can't even tell the difference between a child and an adult!"

Asuma cringed as she managed to pull him into back suplex, slamming his face viciously into the ground as she bent backwards. "I see…"

"I-Izu-mo–!"

"Are you sure, he looks like he's in a lot of pain?" Chouji – his dear gentle student – asked in concern, right when Kotetsu shrieked in pain.

"I guess, I should save him before the pissed-off ronin kills him." The unconcerned tone was not reassuring. The shinobi team gave inquiring looks at the title given to the girl, but decided not to voice their questions at the moment.

Izumo walked up and placed a gentle hand on the woman's shoulder, causing her to pause in pounding his friend's face into the ground. "Ryo-san, don't you think that's enough? I'm sure Kotetsu-san has learned his lesson."

Ryo gave him a sheepish grin, and relaxed her grip enough for the chuunin to dive behind his friend for cover. "It was getting boring, anyway. Spiky wasn't even a challenge."

Kotetsu hissed from behind Izumo's leg. With a smile, Izumo stomped on his best friend's foot.

"OW! God dammit, I hate you Izumo!"

The girl- woman snickered, straightening herself up. Her eyes trailed over the genin team, zeroing in on the Akimichi – because, there was only one clan the big-boned kid could fit in.

Chouji involuntarily stiffened as the kunoichi's intense orange eyes locked on him, and sweat started matting his forehead. While it wasn't obvious looking at her child-like stature, however, her eyes contained a lingering feral power that sent his instincts screaming. His teammates and instructor were too unnerved by her transfixed stare, and Asuma was already stepping forward in a warning gesture.

The woman leaned down – not by much, she wasn't much bigger than him – and sent him a crooked grin. "You're an Akimichi, right?"

He nodded mutedly, the pressure disappearing instantly as the woman's gaze turned absolutely delightful.

"Where's the best place in town to eat?" she asked.

Chouji blinked, unsure of the sudden change, "…The barbecue place is good."

"Sweet! Where is that?"

"Uh…take a right when you hit the bridge, and follow the river down and it'll be on the right a little after the second bridge."

The woman let out a quick, "Thanks, kid!" and was off, snatching her passbook and ticket from the table on the way.

The five shinobi – one moaning and whimpering on the ground – watched the kunoichi as she disappeared without further delay.

Asuma looked at the small crater and cracks that had formed during the process of Kotetsu's body and face being rammed into the earth by the tiny woman. While the scene had been comical, every time Kotetsu would try to counter or escape, the woman would flip or hit him to stop him and readjust her grip. She had been quicker than Kotetsu – an experienced chuunin – could form a hand sign to mold his chakra for a kawamiri. Now that, that was impressive for an unknown nin, and more than slightly concerning that he hadn't recognized her from Konoha's bingo book.

He let out a stream of smoke. There was no doubt his dad had already been alerted to this 'ronin' kunoichi's presence before she stepped into the village and had a team surveying her and digging up anything and everything they could find in case she proved hostile.

"A ronin, huh?"

He had never heard a shinobi identify themselves as such, only samurai used that title to his knowledge. Mercnin was the title village-less shinobi preferred, assuming they weren't defectors who then were called nukenin.

A shinobi not associated with a hidden village while uncommon wasn't necessarily a bad thing as many were mercnins from shinobi clans who had yet to ally themselves with a single entity, although, many nukenins did make up a significant portion of mercenaries.

However, a shinobi born with neither a clan nor a village backing them was indeed a rare and dangerous occurrence.

After all, someone had to teach them the shinobi arts, and that knowledge wasn't something easily obtainable by the public. The rare civilian who managed to get a hold of a scroll found such knowledge useless without knowing how to access chakra. They found themselves either dead or irreparably damaged from the attempt.

* * *

(A/N) I have so many ideas for Ryo, but I'm not sure how I'll tie her into the larger plot yet if I get around to it. Hopefully, I will.

Please leave a review on your way out, I'd love to hear people's opinions!


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